gijoe1313's Blogs

Well late last night, a certain KBer by the name of Gremlin whom I was chatting to on MSN decided to go on a bit of a night ride. He was keen as punch to take his Katoom o'doom, with the name of Katey around the Coro with me at night!

It was a marriage of convenience. I had +90% bulbs that I wanted to road test, and he had a hankering to make up for some lost riding time on his languishing KTM.

As I waited for this esteemed rider of some renown to turn up, I contented myself to refuel and change over the bulbs. Then I helped myself to vittles from the refrigerator and then laid on the driveway looking up at the starry night sky above. Clad in my red ninja camo pajamas naturally! It was not long until I heard the throaty cough of his ride barreling down the road. Of course, he stopped his front wheel mere inches from my head when he espied me draped akimbo on the drive.

A quick conversation and we off riding along the Hunuas to the turn off to Mangatangi and then to Miranda (anything to avoid the dreaded curse of the modern motorway system). It is to be noted here that Gremlin invoked the wheelies that he seems to cherish so much, one of them almost looked like he wished to be part of the Kopu bridge at one stage!

But, I digress, a quick fuel up at Thames and off we rode back via Tairua to do the famed Coro loop in an anti-clockwise direction. At night naturally! And, as many of you have ridden the famed Coro loop, there is no need to twitter on about the sweeping corners, the tight twisties that follow lines over hills and dale. Nor is there any need to mention the magnificent magic carpet ride feeling as you majestically swoop and duck and turn through the myriad corners and sections that make the Coro, the Coro.

Suffice to say, various possums, bunny rabbits and hedgehogs all tried to commit hari-kari under Katie's wheels o'doom.

The coastal road saw Gremlin doing what Gremlin does best. One corner ahead. Two corners ahead. Three corners ahead ... stop looking at his red light because there is a drop into the ocean between me and him! Eventually Thames hooves back into view again and another refuel sees us back to Miranda to head home via Kaiaua. This was interrupted by a quick stop to take a piccie of my Big Ol'Hornet clocking up the satanical reference of 66666 on the odometer! Soon, very soon I shall flip that reading upside down ... and most glorious will be that moment!

Eventually Clevedon comes around and we decided to scoff food items at the Denny's in Manukau (this seems to have become part of our routine when we do the Coro after 10pm).

As we left Denny's, a nice glow heralded the dawn of a new day, the last time Gremlin and I saw a sight like this was when we had ridden back from Cape Reinga in the night as well!

I had a couple of hours sleep and then I woke up and met up with Donor to ride my Big Ol'Hornet in for its 66000 service at Botany. Donor was on Betsy and I dare do say that the lad did enjoy his ride on the scarlet hussy!

It was at Botany that I found Wichard at his scary best/worst. The loaner he wanted to foist on me was a ... cruiser ... a Hyosung ... called an Aquila ... 250cc. Fortunately I had saner minds prevail and the keys to a ST1100 was pressed into my gloved hand. This bike was a revelation to me, it was far more agile and aggressive then I thought. With a bike like this as I took it through its paces in the twisties of Whitford to home, I could ride the world easily!
But all good things do need to be returned and it was good to have my boon companion back. The Big Ol'Hornet had a clean bill of health and it was not long until we were doing what every biker knows what to do best. We rode.

As for Gremlin, he dear reader, is probably still asleep since he so does love his sleep!